Free tools & calculators

Put a number on the cost of getting hiring wrong.

Two quick calculators for the two most expensive hiring mistakes — the seat you leave open, and the person you get wrong. No sign-up to use them.

How they connect

The slow hire becomes the bad hire. These two tools measure both ends of it.

The cost of waiting is the symptom; a bad hire is where it ends. RIQIndex™ shows why your process lets it happen — and our exclusive-contingency search is how you break the chain.

Cost of a VacancyCost of a Bad HireRIQIndex™ health scorePHM Search
Which one you need

One prices the seat being empty. The other prices it being filled by the wrong person.

They are usually treated as separate risks. They are the same one at two stages — a vacancy that runs long creates pressure to settle, and settling is the most common way a bad hire happens. If you are deciding whether to wait for the right person, run both.

Each calculator shows the formula it uses, the research the defaults are drawn from, and where the estimate is deliberately conservative. Both run in your browser. Nothing you type is submitted, and neither asks for an email.

Common questions

Using the calculators.

Are the calculators free, and do I have to sign up?

Free, and no. Nothing is gated, there is no email wall, and you can use either one as many times as you like. They exist because the numbers are useful whether or not you ever speak to us.

Does PHM see the numbers I enter?

No. Both calculators run entirely in your browser — nothing you type is sent to us, logged, or stored anywhere. Close the tab and it is gone. That is deliberate: a salary figure is exactly the kind of thing nobody should have to hand over to get an estimate.

Where do the figures come from?

Each calculator shows the formula it uses and the research behind each input, on the page, under the result. Nothing is a black box — if you disagree with an assumption you can see it and change it.

Which of the two should I use?

If you are deciding whether to wait for the right person, run both. One prices the seat being empty; the other prices it being filled by the wrong person. They are usually treated as separate risks, and they are the same risk at two stages — a vacancy that runs long creates the pressure to settle, and settling is the most common way a bad hire happens.